This is an account of the analysis of a girl of twenty-one who having in previous years been under observation by a social welfare centre as well as by a New York psychiatrist, was finally referred to the authors for analysis on account of her uncontrollable impulse, since the age of seven to eight, to steal money, jewellery and clothes. She had never been detected in her misdeeds but was terrified that sooner or later she would be caught and punished.

She was one of six children of a hardworking labourer who had some years earlier become a brutal drunkard and a thief and was at the time serving a long sentence in prison. Her mother was a hardworking woman, devoted to her maternal duties.